International Leaders Criticize $1B U.S.Debt to United Nations

By John M. GshkoThe Washington PostUNITED NATIONS

A parade of speakers, including the leaders of such close American
allies as Britain and France, used the 50th anniversary summit meeting of
the United Nations Monday to criticize the United States sharply for
failing to pay the $1.3 billion it owes the world body.

No one mentioned the United States by name. But there was no doubt about
the nation to which French President Jacques Chirac, British Prime Minister
John Major and others were referring. Their remarks continued the
international criticism that has grown louder and more insistent as
Congress continues to shy away from appropriating funds necessary to settle
U.S. debts.

"It is not acceptable that many countries, including the foremost among
them, should let heir arrears pile up, thereby leading to bankruptcy in an
organization to which all the world's heads of state and government have
come in an unprecedented event, to affirm that it is irreplaceable on this,
its anniversary day," Chirac said.

"It is not sustainable for member states to enjoy representation without
taxation," Major added, picking up a phrase that has gained wide currency
in U.N. circles after it first was used in a speech here last month by
British Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind.

In his keynote address opening the celebration on Monday, President
Clinton said he is working with Congress to get the payments made. But he
did not elaborate, and the delinquency is becoming a mounting embarrassment
to the Clinton administration and its claims to world leadership.

In his Monday speech, Clinton appealed for international cooperation to
fight terrorism and other cross-border crime such as the drug trafficking
of Colombia's notorious Cali cartel. But, judging by the responses from
other countries' leaders, Clinton's attempt to make these matters a new set
of priorities for the United Nations has been virtually ignored.

Instead, the topics mentioned most frequently in other speeches have
been disarmament, demands by Third World countries for greater power in
U.N. affairs and for more development aid from industrial nations, and
fears that the U.N. financial crisis could thwart realization of these
goals.

That fear has been echoed widely here by countries from every part of
the world, both rich and poor. It was one of the principal topics at a news
conference held on behalf of the 15-nation European Union by Spain's Prime
Minister Felipe Gonzalez, the current president of the EU.